1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of aids for the physically handicapped and more particularly concerns a self-feeder device designed to hold a spoon on a damped arm above a food bowl to allow persons suffering from tremors, neurological problems or weakness in the upper extremities to better feed themselves.
2. State of the Prior Art
Persons suffering from a wide range of neurological and other conditions including multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, Parkinson""s disease, Huntingdon""s disease, head injuries, rheumatoid arthritis and muscular dystrophies may experience great difficulty in performing simple manual tasks due to loss of fine motor control over their extremities, and may in fact become unable to use eating utensils in order to feed themselves. Hand and arm tremors caused by these diseases prevent close control over eating utensils so that the person is unable to keep food on a spoon long enough to lift the food to his or her mouth, or to even maneuver the spoon into his or her open mouth, due to loss of dexterity. Persons in such a condition are likely to drop and spill food and are humiliated in the presence of others by their inability to feed themselves. In many these symptoms are sufficiently severe that the persons become largely dependent upon others to feed them, with severe negative impact on the afflicted individual""s self-esteem. Either friends or family must make themselves available for this purpose, or professional help must be retained at considerable cost. In either case a considerable burden, personal or economic, is imposed by the need to care for the handicapped individual.
There is a need for devices, tools or aids which can assist moderately impaired persons afflicted with conditions such as just described to feed themselves without the assistance of third persons, in order to restore these persons to a measure of independence and self-sufficiency.
Electrically operated self-feeders are available but are costly and generally intended for more severely incapacitated persons. The applicant is aware of one self-feeder powered by the user and provided with a damped arm and a self-leveling spoon for use by persons with tremors or weakness of the upper extremities. Nonetheless, further improvements and refinements in user powered self-feeders are needed.
In response to the aforementioned need this invention provides a self-feeder for the handicapped, having a base, an upright support on the base, and a cross arm supported on the upright support for rotation about a vertical axis thereby to swing the cross arm horizontally and also supported for pivotal movement in a vertical plane thereby to raise and lower a free end of the cross arm. A spoon holder is supported near the free end of the cross arm for pivotal movement in the same vertical plane relative to the cross arm. A linkage mechanism is operative for keeping the spoon holder in a constant, e.g. vertical position during pivotal movement of the cross arm in the vertical plane. A mechanical spring is contained in the upright support and urges the cross arm to a maximally elevated position. A one way damper is also located in the upright support, and is effective in slowing the speed of the rising cross arm. Consequently, a spoon attached to the spoon holder may be lowered by pushing down the cross arm against the force of the spring for scooping food from a food bowl placed on the base, and the cross arm may be then released to an elevated position under urging of the spring to raise the spoon to the mouth of a user while keeping the spoon level to avoid spilling the food from the spoon.
The upright support may be telescopically assembled to and can be slidably removable from a base post affixed to the base, such that the upright support together with the cross arm can be readily disassembled from the base for compact storage of the self-feeder. For example, the upright support can be a vertical tube slidably fitted on a base post affixed to the base, with the upright support freely rotatable about the base post for horizontal rotation of the cross arm. The spring and damper are preferably contained in the vertical tube, and the cross arm is pivoted to the tube at a location radially spaced from the center axis of the tube, and the damped mechanical spring is compressed between the tube and the cross arm along the center axis of the tube, whereby an upward bias is applied by the spring to the cross arm.
The cross arm has two mutually opposite walls vertical to the base, a first shaft between the opposite walls for pivoting the arm to the upright support, a second shaft between the opposite walls for pivoting the spoon holder to the arm. The linkage mechanism includes a linkage rod having one end pivoted to the upright support at a location spaced from the first shaft and a second end pivoted to the spoon holder at a location spaced from the second shaft thereby to form a parallelogram arrangement for keeping the spoon holder in a constant attitude relative to the base during pivotal movement of the cross arm.
It is desirable to provide first stop means adjustable for setting the maximally elevated position of the cross arm under upward urging by the spring, and second stop means adjustable for limiting left and right horizontal swing of the cross arm.
The spoon is supported transversely to the arm in the spoon holder for oscillation in the vertical plane independently of the cross arm. More specifically, the spoon holder has an upper portion pivoted to the cross arm for movement in the vertical plane independently of the cross arm and a lower portion including spoon retaining means, the lower portion being pivoted to the upper portion for oscillation relative to the upper portion between a normal vertical condition corresponding to a level position of the spoon and an elevated position corresponding to an inclined position of said spoon. The spoon has a spoon handle adapted for releasable retentive engagement to the spoon retaining means of the spoon holder.
Optionally, a handle may be rigidly affixed to the lower portion of the spoon holder for use in lifting the lower portion of the spoon holder from a vertical position to a tilted position, thereby to move a spoon retained to the lower portion between a level and an inclined position to assist in dipping the spoon into a serving of food. The lower portion of the spoon holder is returned to the normal vertical position from the tilted position by its own weight. Retentive engagement of the spoon handle may be on either a left side or a right side of the cross arm for ambidextrous left hand or right hand use of the self-feeder, respectively. The spoon holder may also be attached to the cross arm with the longitudinal dimension of the spoon aligned with the cross arm instead of at right angles thereto.
The self-feeder further has a turntable rotatable on the base for supporting a food bowl under the spoon holder. Preferably the turntable has a raised edge for holding a plate placed on the turntable against sliding off the turntable during self-feeding. It is also desirable to provide a slip resistant top surface for restraining a plate against sliding across the turntable surface during self-feeding.
The turntable is displaceable across the base for optimum positioning relative to the spoon holder. For example, a slide plate is slidable on the base, the turntable is rotatably fixed to the slide plate, and a fastener is provided for releasably locking the slide plate to the base in a selected position. The fastener is adjustable between a fully locked first position for locking the slide plate against movement relative to the base, a selective locking second position wherein the glide plate is free to turn about the fastener relative to the base, and a released third position wherein the slide plate is also free to slide radially to the fastener. More particularly, the fastener has a knob on a shaft threaded to the base, and the fully locked first position corresponds to a fully tightened condition of the knob against the slide-plate thereby to capture the slide plate between the knob and the base, the selective locking second position is a partially tightened condition of the knob against the slide plate, and the released position is a loosely tightened condition of the knob against the slide plate.